Kaval's Kickoff: Office hours open to the public

The Golden Boot race is on! With a brace this weekend, Chris Wondolowksi catapulted himself into a tie for the MLS lead in goals scored. He is facing some tough competition with DC United's Dwayne De Rosario and New York Red Bull's Thierry Henry sharing the 14 goal number. DeRo has more matches to play than Wondo but let's not count our crafty goal scorer out! Wondo has been on a tear of late scoring in five of the last seven matches.

It was thrilling to see a late goal get us a win and three points this weekend. All too often, we had been giving up those late goals. This last month of the season is an opportunity to evaluate our team. Despite being eliminated from the playoffs, the boys are still playing hard and with pride and the late effort that resulted in Wondo's second goal demonstrated that resolve and tenacity. These are great qualities that are essential for a successful club.

Keep in mind as well that beyond the Golden Boot, which will likely come down to the last weekend match against FC Dallas, the Quakes are also playing the Sounders this coming weekend for the Heritage Cup. A Quakes win or a 3-3 draw will result in the Quakes winning the Heritage Cup. This is a great tradition that celebrates the Sounders and Quakes long standing history as pioneers in professional soccer in North America. The Sounders have removed the tarps at CenturyLink Field and have already sold 55,000 tickets for the match. The event will be one of the largest MLS games of all time in terms of attendance. It is Kasey Keller's last regular season game in goal and hopefully we can rain on their parade with a Quakes win and a flurry of goals.

On the stadium front, I got several emails this week about the seats at the new stadium. I think there was some confusion about the type of seats we will be using. We are putting in chair back individual seats except for the supporter’s area, which will be specially designed for the supporters. There will be no benches like at Buck Shaw. I did get a bunch of different perspectives on the color of the seats. What do people think about seat color for the new stadium? What do people think about including the team name or city name in the seats?

As many of you know, I have been meeting individually with many Quakes stakeholders over the past several months to discuss the stadium, the team, and anything about the club or just soccer in general. I am a big believer in improving communication and being accessible and available to people. There have been some really great insights derived from these meetings. I wanted to expand on this in the spirit of better connecting with our fans, stakeholders, alumni players and community members. I will start hosting open office hours on Mondays from 3-5 p.m. at our offices at 451 El Camino Real, Suite 220 in Santa Clara. Anyone can stop by to chat. The open hours will be listed online, but the plan is to do Mondays from 3-5 p.m. unless something crazy comes up and I have to travel or head out to an important meeting. The first session will be on Monday October 17. I hope to see you there.